It was sad to see my studio of 7 years get demolished, but the sadness was offset by the fascination of watching a brilliant excavator operator take the entire building down in less than 39 minutes.
You can watch the whole process at this video or scroll down to see an edited version.
Here is a shorter video showing some highlights: https://youtu.be/-30cFDwg9l4
Applications are open for the third women’s Selkie Scholarship program for the 2024 Cacapehon Recording and Songwriting Retreat
Capon Springs, West Virginia (September 1 2023) Recording Boot Camp is pleased to announce open registration for the 3rd annual Selkie Scholarship which will be will awarded to two women that show compelling talent or potential in the fields of music production and audio engineering. The Selkie Scholarship funds offset over 80% of the cost of participation, food and private lodging for the Cacapehon Recording and Songwriting Retreat (May 5-10, 2024).
Registration will close January 15th, 2024.
The winners will be selected by an advisory panel of industry professionals, and the scholarships are supported by Recording Boot Camp and crowdfunding. Those interested in supporting the scholarship can get more information at the GoFundMe page.
The Cacapehon Retreat was founded by producer-engineer-educator Ronan Chris Murphy (King Crimson, Aurora, Gwar) as “The Mountain Recording Retreat”. In 2017 he added a second week called “The Mountain Songwriting Retreat” in collaboration with internationally renown singer-songwriter Dave Nachmanoff (artist and longtime collaborator with Al Stewart). Two years ago, the two separate retreats were combined into one event known as Cacapehon. The name of the retreat is a version of the Shawnee word for the area where the retreat takes place.
The Cacapehon Retreat takes place in the mountain resort of Capon Spring, in West Virginia just two hours from Washington DC. This all inclusive retreat provides five days of recording and songwriting workshops, critiques, co-writing, jam sessions, DIY gear building and more. It is a unique event where all the participants and mentors study, eat, and play together with a very low attendee to mentor ratio.
The first two years of Selkie Scholarships were funded by Recording Boot Camp and a single private sponsor. For 2024, the scholarships are supported by Recording Boot Camp and crowdfunding through a GoFundMe campaign.
I split my time between the United States and Italy. In Italy I have a place in the medieval hill town of Ripatransone (known as Ripa by the locals) . If I was to share a photo that showed the beauty of Ripatransone, one would expect me to share a shot of one of the panoramas, which would make sense, because the views to the sea, across the vineyards and olive groves and three mountain ranges are some of the most beautiful in the world. One might also expect me to share a photo of the piazzas in the historic centers. After all, the Italian travel club named Ripatransone as one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Italy. But I would share something different…
The visual beauty of Ripa is awe inspiring to me, and every day that I am here, I have trouble actually comprehending it. But when I am away from Ripatransone, the visual beauty is not what I miss. When I am away from this place, it is the people, the culture, the art, the food and the wine that I really miss. If I try to think of a single photo that shows the beauty of Ripatransone, it would be this one. Not shot with my professional photo equipment, but only my phone.
In one of the three main piazzas of Ripatransone, there is a beautiful early medieval portico. A few times a week a local vegetable seller sets up a portable table and sells vegetables that he grows just a few hundred meters away. The vegetables are always just-harvested fresh, delicious, and considerably less expensive than the bland industrial produce I often get in the United States.
Directly behind the vegetable table is the Fiuto Art Space. It is a single room about the size of a garden shed with electricity, but no plumbing. The the medieval brickwork is beautiful, but it is, by all accounts, a space that would be worthless for anything more that a storage space. Alex Urso, a young man from Ripa transformed that “useless” space into a vibrant art gallery. Alex curates single artist shows of contemporary artists in the gallery, and the openings become a gathering place for the art community (and those that support it), and that “storage space” is becoming a new focal point for contemporary art in the region. At a Fiuto art opening, immersed in a welcoming creative community and drinking a Ripano wine…. it is hard to think of anything that better encapsulates what I love about Ripatransone and Le Marche.
The rest of the portico is filled out by a wonderful artisan bakery, and a casalinga store, selling pots and pans, cleaning supplies and the like at great prices.
Under this portico in Ripatransone is so much of what is wonderful about this place. A simple architectural gem from hundreds of years ago where the Ripani are simultaneously preserving the past, living daily life, and creating a future.
Panetteria – Pasticceria Alamprese Michele
Outside of work, one of the highlights of 2022 was finally buying a place in Italy. I bought a place in the center of a medieval hill town overlooking the Adriatic Sea. When I am not working on the road, I am splitting my time between California and Italy.
New Release from Aurora
I recently did the ATMOS mixing and mastering for the latest release from multiplatinum Norwegian artist, Aurora. After its release, Apple Music had the ATMOS version of the album as their top “Spatial Audio” recommendation.
The release is the album version of an incredible project where Aurora is part of an interactive concert experience inside the game SKY: Children of Light. It is both artistically fascinating and technologically pioneering, and an amazing thing to be connected with. Aurora and the team at ThatGameCompany gave me fantastic material to work with.
New Film for MGM
the details are under wraps, but I had a chance to record the score for an upcoming film from MGM at the Village Recorders. I used to record a lot of classical music and it was good to be back recording a big string section again.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The upcoming release of the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre game is doing a really interesting thing, and releasing an album that is not exactly the soundtrack, but connected to it. The music was created by Jim Bonney (who I also worked with on Mafia III) and in-game composer Wes Keltner. I mixed and mastered the stereo and ATMOS versions of the album and did a lot of re-amping of guitars. The album is dark and complex… and heavy. Learn more about it here.
AAA Game Score recording
I have been working on recording some incredible music for the score of one of the big AAA video games and am excited to tell you more about it when I am legally allowed to do so. The music is really cool!!
A New Album for GWAR
I produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the new album for the band GWAR called “The New Dark Ages” which Kerrang described as “A bonkers concept album”. They just dropped a new single that I produced, mixed, and mastered as well as helped write and played a little on it. It was fun to have the great Lzzy Hale from Halestorm guest on it. The video is great but be warned that it is very gory!! Check it out!
New Global Collaboration with Kathleen Blackwell
There is a new single out from my longtime collaborator, Kathleen Blackwell, as part of our Project Electrico. The song, which began by recording Italian musician Zu by the canals of Venice, eventually combined parts from the United States and Mexico, including Motown legend Tony Newton on bass, former Los Lobos drummer Victor Bisetti, and José Manuel Aguilera from La Barranca.
I also worked on far more mixing and mastering projects than I can keep track of, but a few of the artists and producers I worked with this year include Georg Storhaug, Eben Aldridge, Lisa Donna, Curtis Fornadly, Miguel Tomas, Jon Erik Gretland, Aleksander Kristoffersen, Tim Hall, Chris Schlarb, James Houlahan, Dean Federick Clark, Brock Pytel, Jazzy Ash, Bryan Myers, Eight Panes of Glass, Cultivations la Paix, Bruce James, Izzy and the Finns, and more….
I am looking forward to a fun 2023.
Ronan
I am selling several pieces of mostly high end gear. Most of it, I am selling for friends that are dealing with recent deaths in the family or medical emergencies. I am not taking any money from the sales (except the 2290). All gear is located in Southern California north of L.A. and I would prefer local pick up when ever possible.
Never been used. Still in the original plastic wrap.
$400 + shipping
Mint condition Owner says it has never been used.
$1000 + shipping
Royer RSM-1 $125 + shipping
Royer AT-84 $75 + shipping
Used but in very good condition. A favorite of many mixers and guitarists. If you are checking this out, you probably already know what it is, and why they are special.
$1450 + shipping
Very good condition. They may not have ever been used.
$80 + shipping
Only used a few times. In excellent condition in original box. From the private studio of legendary producer Rick Jarrard. More info about the model. https://reel-reel.com/tape-recorder/technics-rs-1500/
$2,100 + Shipping
Mint condition This has most likely never been used.
$1250 + shipping
Royer RSM-1 $150
Royer AT-84 $75
Mint condition This has most likely never been used. You can see that the plastic is still like the factory wrap.
$300 + shipping
These are in excellent condition. (Paint is slightly scratched on the blue pre) It is rare to find these for sale anywhere, since they do not come on the used market often and are currently out of production. https://www.adesignsaudio.com/500-series-preamps
$600 each + shipping
Mint condition These have most likely never been used.
$175 + shipping
Ronan was recently invited by the Los Angeles Section of the Audio Engineering society to do an informal chat about the art of EQing reverbs that morphed into a 90 minute discussion of mixing techniques and philosophy. The event was hosted by engineer Barry Rudolph (The Beach Boys, Selena, Enrique Iglesias, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall and Oates, Rod Stewart…) and can a video of it can be watched below for free. Make sure to check out the AES LA Section website to get news about future events.
Diego Lopez (1985-2019)
I knew I was going to hire Diego Lopez to work with me before I heard anything he had ever recorded or mixed. He came on as a volunteer intern when I was relocating my studio to Santa Monica about 8 or 9 years ago. It was a tough move that had a lot of challenges, including some things that would have pushed most people over the brink. Regardless of how tough things got, Diego kept his cool, stayed level headed and served the work. He never complained. You can teach people where to place mics, and how to use studio effects but you can’t teach character. I knew he was the kind of person I wanted working along side of me when things got crazy in recording sessions. I was blessed to have him working by my side for many years.
Thankfully, in addition to the right temperament, he also had a great ears and taste and not long after starting work as my assistant, he took over the engineer’s chair and worked as my engineer on countless projects I produced over the years. Our work gave us the privilege of being part of lots of wonderful music together and he was able to come to work with me on music in lots of cool places including Cuba, Iceland, the Faroe Island and even his beloved Oaxaca Mexico, which I fell in love with as well. In addition to making records with me, Diego helped with a lot of my educational workshops and online training including writing and producing his own Spanish language recording course that we as rightly very proud of. Diego also developed his own clients. Not long before he got sick the leader of one of Diego’s all time favorite bands, La Barranca asked him to come to Mexico City to work on a project, which was probably the proudest moment of Diego’s career.
Diego got a very aggressive form of bone cancer. After a long stretch of treatment they realized that it was highly unlikely that he would survive it. Even in one of the most devastating and stressful of situations imaginable, Diego still managed to keep his cool and he seemed to be at peace with the realities of his situation. The day before he died, I got a text from him that said, “Good news is I personally feel fine and I’m I good spirits”. In my last conversation with him, he spent more time talking about the well being of others instead of his own plight. He was cool until the end.
One of the dreams of people that write and record music is that the work we do will live on beyond us. Despite his far too short life, Diego Lopez helped bring a lot of great music into the world. His work will live on and he lives on in all of it. I am honored to have been a part of it with him.
Ronan Chris Murphy
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his year I produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the new album from GWAR, “The Blood of Gods”. It was a long time dream of mine to work with them. The album is now available worldwide on Metal Blade Records. Here are a few photos I took while I worked on the project.
